The invention relates generally to the field of bubble making devices, and more particularly to the field of wind-powered bubble making devices.
Various devices which create bubbles are well known, some as simple as a hand-held looped wand which is dipped into a bubble-making solution to achieve a thin film stretched across the loop, through which air is then blown from the mouth of the user. Because of the popularity of such entertainment devices, the state of the art of bubble makers has advanced. First, bubble makers having multiple loops were developed to increase the number of bubbles produced from a single blow or by pulling the larger wand rapidly through the air. The next progressive step in the art was the development of automatic or powered bubble makers, such as seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,498,191 to DeMars, 5,613,890 to DeMars, 5,462,469 to Lei, 5,078,636 to Clarke et al., 5,269,715 to Silveria et al., which do not require the user to blow through the wands to create the bubbles. One particular style of these more advanced bubble making devices operate similarly to a propeller or windmill, wherein a plural number of looped wands extend from a hub connected in some manner to a wind-powered, rotating fan or propeller, the wands being sequentially passed through a reservoir containing the bubble-making solution by rotation of the propeller or fan, which in turn exposes the loops to a current of air. Examples of such devices are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,862,320 to Mayo, 3,008,263 to Ellman, and 5,542,869 to Petty. These devices can be placed in a wind stream to automatically and continually produce a multitude of bubbles as long as the wind moves the fan and the bubble-making solution remains in sufficient amount in the reservoir to properly coat the wand loops. A problem with these devices is that the reservoirs are open topped containers which are filled with bubble-making solution from a second container, and once filled the reservoirs are susceptible to spillage if the device is moved or bumped.
It is an object of this invention to provide an automatic, wind-powered, bubble making device which does not utilize an open-topped, solution-filled reservoir to coat the rotating wands, such that very little or no spillage occurs if the device is bumped or tipped. These and other objects which will be clear from the description below are accomplished by providing a pumping mechanism operated by the fan which draws bubble-making solution from a closed reservoir and supplies it directly to the loops of the rotating wands, with any excess solution falling into a catch basin where it is recycled into the closed reservoir.